Maintenance of Chennai Corporation parks outsourced to private players for Rs 11 crore

CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has proposed to spend Rs 11 crore to upkeep and maintain more than 120 public parks through private agencies for a period of one year.

The local body is responsible for the maintenance of more than 800 public parks available in 200 wards across the city.

To maintain them, the local body has planned to employ private agencies to look after 123 public parks in the first five zones of the city for a year. It has also floated tenders to call for bidders and assessed an expenditure of Rs 11 crore for this project.

“The successful bidder should undertake minor repairs and maintenance of pavements, walkways, electrical fittings, toilet fittings, play area, and equipment,” said an official with GCC. “The key role of private players will be housekeeping and sanitation services, gardening services, security services, repairs and maintenance.”

The bidder will not be allowed to stack or dump the waste collected from the parks anywhere within the park. “It should be segregated and deposited at the collection point earmarked by the GCC. All the tools, materials and equipment should be eco-friendly and bio degradable,” he added.

The GCC also made it clear that the bidder should not engage any personnel above 50 years of age. “No accommodation to the personnel employed by the bidder, including cooking and lodging, will be allowed in the park premises,” said the GCC.

If the private agency found to be not comply with the conditions, it would face a penalty ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 5 lakh and even may lose the contract, warned the GCC.

Salary for personnel employed by bidder

Supervisor – Rs 22,460

Electrician-cum-Plumber – Rs 29,943

Housekeeping and/or Sweeper – Rs 19,994

Gardener – Rs 22,509

Security – Rs 19,994